{"product_id":"caldeskyis_2510_4x__","title":"Caldera - Sky Islands - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis Super Hot Stamper Caldera album has Demo Disc sound, big and bold, wall to wall and then some! Listen to the monster drum at the opening of \"Sky Islands\" -- it’s not deep like the bass drum in an orchestra, but it’s solid, punchy and way up front in the mix where it really grabs your attention right from the get go. It’s the perfect introduction to a band that wants to get in your face and knock you over with the power and energy of their music. The immediacy of the recording is like standing at the front of the stage where the music is its loudest and clearest, exactly where I like to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Sky Islands Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221977%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1977\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCopies with \u003cstrong\u003erich lower mids and nice extension up top\u003c\/strong\u003e did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren't veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record. We know, we've heard them all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop end extension\u003c\/strong\u003e is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTube smear\u003c\/strong\u003e is common to most vintage pressings. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProduced by Larry Dunn of Earth Wind and Fire fame (he also lends a hand on keyboards), Sky Islands is the pinnacle of the group’s output. AMG really nails the Caldera sound in their bio for the band:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003eOne of the most innovative and chance-taking jazz-fusion outfits of the late 1970s, Caldera was a Latin band that combined jazz, funk and rock with a wide variety of Latin music. 1970s fusion explorers like Return to Forever and Weather Report influenced Caldera, but its members were also influenced by everything from Earth, Wind \u0026amp; Fire’s soul\/funk to Afro-Cuban salsa, Brazilian samba and Andean\/Peruvian music.\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAny band that tries to emulate Weather Report, Return to Forever and Earth, Wind \u0026amp; Fire gets high marks in my book, assuming they can pull it off; those are some seriously talented musicians, groups that have made some of our favorite albums of all time,  \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Desert-Island-Disc%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDesert Island Discs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e even. If you can keep up with them you’ve been doing your homework.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI would add one more band to that list: Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66. Diane Reeves fronts two tracks which sound very much like classic Sergio Mendes (when Lani Hall was still in the band, pre-Stillness). I’m a total sucker for albums with female vocalists backed by jazzy latin ensembles, been that way for decades and see no reason to change now. Especially when they have, as is so often the case, audiophile quality sound. A top copy of this album is to die for, but not many had the goods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Sky Islands\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, full-bodied bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Carnavalito\" is a track that really comes alive when you crank up the volume. I played it full blast on two different occasions for audiophile friends of mine just to show them what happens when a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22big-speaker%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ebig speaker\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e stereo meets a large scale recording with absolutely \u003ci\u003eamazing\u003c\/i\u003e audiophile quality sound -- big and bold, wall to wall and then some.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s my favorite track not only for the album as a whole but for the band’s entire recorded output. It just doesn’t get any better than this if you have the system for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHearing the megawatt energy in the section when the soprano saxophonist jumps in, right into an ongoing orgy of wild percussion, who then proceeds to blow his brains out -- now that is a thrill beyond belief. Played \u003ci\u003ereally loud\u003c\/i\u003e it’s about the closest to the real thing -- the live event -- that you will ever hear in your living room. (Unless you have a very large living room and lots of latin jazz musician friends.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven a year ago there was no way I could get that music to play that loud, that cleanly, and that tonally correct, from the deepest bass to the highest highs, with the wild swings in dynamics that the recording captures so well. The Audio Revolution is alive and well and making progress all the time. It’s never too late to join in the fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Latin Jazz Fusion Masterpiece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider this Caldera album their masterpiece. Others that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22jazz-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Caldera","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50827945574696,"sku":"caldeskyis","price":99.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/caldeskyis.jpg?v=1728746176","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/caldeskyis_2510_4x__","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}